From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lithuanian is considered one of the most archaic of the living Indo-European languages. It is the official language of Lithuania, spoken by about 4 million native Lithuanians. Lithuanian is also known by the alternative names Lietuvių kalba (in Lithuanian), Litovskiy yazyk (in Russian), Język Litewski (in Polish), and Litauische Sprache (in German).
In older literature on Baltic languages, "Lithuanian" can sometimes refer to Baltic Languages in general.
| Lithuanian (Lietuvių) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Lithuania and 18 other countries |
| Total speakers: | 4 Million |
| Ranking: | - |
| Genetic classification: |
Indo-European Baltic Eastern Lithuanian |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | Lithuania |
| Regulated by: | - |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1: | lt |
| ISO 639-2: | lit |
| SIL: | LIT |
History
The Lithuanian language still retains the original sound system and morphological peculiarities of the prototypal Indo-European language and therefore is fascinating for linguistic study. Between 400-600 AD, the Lithuanian and Latvian languages split from the Eastern Baltic (Prussian) language group, which subsequently became extinct. The first known written Lithuanian text dates from a hymnal translation in 1545. Written with the Latin alphabet, Lithuanian has been the official language of Lithuania again since 1989.
Classification
Lithuanian is one of two (the other is Latvian) living Baltic languages, which is a separate branch of the Indo-European languages, but perhaps closest to the Slavic family.
Geographic distribution
Lithuanian is spoken mainly in Lithuania. It is also spoken in Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA, and Uzbekistan.
2,955,200 in Lithuania (including 3,460 Tatar) or about 80% of the population (1998) speak Lithuanian. The population total speaking Lithuanian for all countries is 4,000,000 (1993 UBS).
Standard Lithuanian is based on Western Aukshtaitish. Zhemaitish is somewhat difficult for others to understand. Second languages Russian and English are used with foreigners.
Official status
Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania.Dialects
The Lithuanian language has two main dialects: Aukshtaitish (Aukštaičių, Highland Lithuanian) and Zhemaitish (Samogitian, Žemaičių, Lowland Lithuanian). See maps at [1].Derived languages
Sounds
Vowels
Consonants
Phonology
Historical sound changes
Grammar
There are two grammatical genders in Lithuanian. It has the free stress.
Each noun is declined in seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. The 1st scientific Compendium of Lithuanian language was published 1856/57 by August Schleicher, a professor at Prague University.Vocabulary
Writing system
Like most of the Indo-European languages, Lithuanian employs modified Roman script (including 32 letters).
